Man faces federal child porn charges

A Rolling Meadows man was charged Monday with taking photographs of several minors engaged in sex and posting the sexually explicit images of two boys on a Web site he set up to make money.

Bruce E. Walker, 41, was ordered held in the federal Metropolitan Correctional Center at least until a detention hearing Thursday.

He was arrested Friday at his home, a day after his roommate had been arrested for indecent solicitation of a child and told authorities Walker manufactured and distributed child pornography, the FBI said.

A criminal complaint lodged Monday against Walker in U.S. District Court in Chicago charged him with one felony count of producing child pornography with intent to distribute it. The two boys are 17, and anyone under the age of 18 is considered a minor under federal law.

If convicted, Walker faces at least 10 years in prison, the FBI said.

After getting the tip from the roommate, FBI agents and detectives from the Lake County Sheriff's Department and the Rolling Meadows Police Department obtained a warrant to search Walker's residence in the 4700 block of Arbor Drive.

Walker, who was at home, allegedly admitted he set up a Web site about a year ago to make money.

To obtain business, Walker advertised on the Web site, posting photographs of "models" and offering to send many more images of the models to paid subscribers, the charges allege.

Walker admitted that about three or four months ago he used a digital camera to photograph three boys having sex in his residence, the FBI said.

Walker said he posted pictures of two of the boys on his Web site but not the third boy because of a dispute with him, according to the charges. The age of the third boy wasn't given.

Walker admitted he paid the three boys to let him take and sell the pictures of them, the FBI said.